How Well Do You "Play the Smart Phone"?

Have you ever thought of typing or texting like playing a musical instrument?

People who use the computer a lot or spend a lot of time texing often end up with tension in their hands and wrist and even further up the chain in the shoulders and neck that causes them trouble.  Instrumentalist often to as well and I work on the same basic principles of using the hands with violinist, pianist, typists, and texters.  Musicians themselves usually spend a lot of time typing and texting as well.  

Even though this approach to how to move the fingers and hands might be similar for various activities, it tends to resonate differently (literally and figuratively) when applying it to playing music because the sound improves.  If only we could get such feedback from our smartphones and laptops!

I've been told by people close to me and total strangers that I type loudly, but volume is not necessarily the type of feedback I'm looking for!  It's quality.  So how can you assess the quality of your movment when typing and texting?

You might have to pay a little more attention to what you sense with your body and what you see.  Here are two examples that you can try right now.

1.  Pay attention to what you see:  Grab onto your phone or mouse or reach for your keyboard and start typing.  Watch your wrists.  Do you lock them?  Often people generate far more tension in the wrists then is necessary.   You could do a little more work with the hands/fingers and leave the wrists alone.   Doing a little more work with your hands doesn't mean your tensing them in a bad way.  Allow your fingers and hands lengthen toward what you're picking up or reaching for and avoid creating tension that you don't need in your wrists.  If your wrists are tense, you arms and shoulders probably are too.

2.  Pay attention to what you feel:  Though what we feel can at times be unreliable without some guidance, if you pay attention, you can probabably sense if you shoulders tighten or cave in and if your face has dropped or pushed toward your screen.  Can you lift or reach without dropping your upper body?  You may need to move your head down a bit to look at your phone, but try moving down without collapsing.  Collapse in the upper body can often lead the hands and arms to tense to try and hold you up.

Did you realize that the way you use your hands affects your posture?  Play the computer keyboard more like a piano and you may find that you sit better!